Film packages are conventionally used to supply stacks of photographic film sheets to printers. Such packages comprise a carrier of heavy-duty paper or cardboard partially enclosing the stack, and a light-tight flexible wrapper enclosing the carrier and the stock, as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,229. One end of such a wrapper is automatically pulled off the stack within the confines of the printer to leave the stack of film accessible for pulling off individual sheets from the stack.
The difficulty with conventional film packages such as the type described in the '229 patent is that the carrier has not been sufficiently rigid to withstand the rigors of the wrapper removal within the printer. Because the top panel of the carrier is not secured all the way around one exterior corner, but is free to hinge upwardly, the entire carrier is subject to collapsing or bending sufficiently when the wrapper is pulled off, as to cause the carrier to follow the carrier into the printer sufficiently to cause a jam. At the same time, however, it has been useful to have at least one part of the cover of the carrier flex away when a film sheet is pulled off the stack. These tend to be conflicting requirements.
Hence, prior to this invention there has been a need to provide a film package wherein the carrier has sufficient rigidity, especially at the corner adjacent to the exit slot for the wrapper, to resist the tendency to follow the wrapper into the printer.